Reviews

A thought-provoking, insightful, and comprehensive volume that investigates different ways of practicing community archaeology in Israel/Palestine. A must-read for people interested in community archaeology and the history of archaeology in all its complexities.
Aron Mazel, Newcastle University

What does it mean to do archaeology in a settler colonial context? How would one even begin to practice what is called community archaeology in conditions of military and political occupation and apartheid, and in the midst of on-going genocidal violence? This important and courageous collection undertakes a difficult but crucial task: it invites us to reflect on those and many other questions, motivated by the desire to imagine a different future, one of co-existence and collaboration. It goes on to show, time and again, that "community archaeology" in the abstract, disentangled from the specific political and social context, is an empty vessel. Such depoliticized community archaeology does more harm than good, as it justifies and perpetuates colonization, and all sorts of exclusivist, nationalist racist ideologies. The lessons to be learnt from this book carry wide implications, well beyond the region under investigation. They concern archaeology as a whole, as well as the struggles for the decolonization of heritage, the world over.
Yannis Hamilakis, co-author of Archaeology, Nation, and Race: Confronting the Past, Decolonizing the Future in Greece and Israel